


Time for an education

by Clockwork



Series: Raising Baby [4]
Category: Jupiter Ascending (2015)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, One Big Happy Family, Pack poly, Post canon, raising balem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-19
Updated: 2018-11-19
Packaged: 2019-08-26 03:31:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16673869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clockwork/pseuds/Clockwork
Summary: Continuing the raising Balem series. The time has come for schooling, and not everyone is in agreement on how to handle things.





	Time for an education

“You can’t send him to public school. Hell, I’m not sure how you think you can send him to a private school. Not on this planet.”

“This is my planet,” Jupiter pointed out. “I was educated on this planet, and he is my… No, he is my child. Our child, Stinger. He has to have a proper education, and he has to socialize with other children. Do you want him coming out like he was last time around?”

“He came out like he was the last time around because of…”

“Because of me,” she said, moving to stand toe to toe with the splice. “Go on and say it, Stinger. I raised him, and I am the reason behind how he came out.”

Stinger rubbed at his brow with one hand, the other hand on his hip, trying not to glare at her. “That’s not why and you know it. It wasn’t even technically you. You’re the same DNA but you’re not…”

“AHA!” She practically leapt on those words, reaching up to waggle a finger in his face. “And that is my point. He’s not Balem. He is Balem’s DNA but a lot went into making a psycho out of a boy like ours,” she said, tones low and fierce.

Any other had faced Jupiter speaking to them like this and they would be cowering. She was royalty. She was the queen. She ruled with a strong hand that leant itself to fairness and protecting humanity, but she was still royalty and she knew it. More than that, she didn’t let others forget it when they tried to treat her as nothing more than a human from Earth. She knew her place now.

Sadly the two men whom were closest to her and helping her raise her reborn son seemed to forget it more than anyone else.

“Jupiter, I know he is not technically Balem, but do you not think he still carries that which made him Balem?”

“I was scrubbing toilets when Caine found me, Stinger. I was a maid. Is that an act you would say echoes the royalty that is in my veins? No. Do I make youth elixir out of people? Again, no, because that’s not how I was raised. He was raised by the four of us. He has known family love, and friendship, and play, and he’s been raised as a human on Earth. Besides, without the power of the crown behind him, what do you think he’s capable of?”

“Well, for one? He has Caine wrapped around his little finger. And Kiza for that matter.”

“Leave me out of this!” The call of Stinger’s daughter’s voice came from the other room. “And I vote for school. I’m not homeschooling, and neither are any of you.”

Stinger groaned, dropping his face into his hands and scrubbing at his face. “And what did Caine say?” Muffled words barely passed his hands. 

“Caine is more worried about the logistics of a security detail at the school that I will not authorize. He’s a child. A normal human, mostly, child, who deserves to have friends that aren’t skyjackers. Friends that are legit his own age and don’t just act like it.”

Both of Stinger’s hands dropped to his side, eyes narrowing and glaring at his queen. “That was unfair.”

“That was referring to Caine,” she said, and despite the words, there is a fond smile for the man she calls her boyfriend and who calls her his mate. “But if the flying lit up boot fits, Stinger…”

“There’s a damn good question you present right there, _Your Highness_. How do we explain things like Caine’s wings, or that he’s flown wearing those same boots, or that his siblings, who do visit him and that he knows, are those two idiots?”

“Titus And Kalique are his siblings from their father earlier in his life. He’s a third marriage baby,” Jupiter said with a snort. “It’s cute that children will take a silly game with parasails and think that a man can fly,” she said, smiling tightly, making sure that Stinger was aware that she’d already put time and thought into this. 

She hadn’t wanted a child, and the last one that she wanted to raise was the reincarnation of the man that had tried to kill her, but in the end, he was a child. Whatever had happened before, with any of them, he was still a child and he deserved to have a life and to actually get to live as a child. Which meant getting outside of this farm house and having friends that aren’t her guards and the reincarnation of the woman that had birthed him. 

Balem, or Malik as Kiza had asked to call him when the siblings had delivered him on their doorsteps, needed to find out who he was himself. Without a life made from destroying entire planets, harvesting the lives of those that they had cultivated for their own needs and profit. Without a life that had included his throat being ripped out by the very man, splice, that he now looked up to as a mentor and friend, and father if any of them were honest about it. 

Not that they were. Using the word just never seemed right. Not for those that knew the true history of the boy with dark eyes and pale skin, his dark hair long and straight and often in his face unless they insisted he pull it back. There was a sharpness there in those eyes, intelligence and emotion showing that they knew were an echo of his existence and not merely his current life.

An old soul the woman at the mall had called him. If only she knew the half of it.

“You’ve really put thought into this, haven’t you?”

“Stinger, when have you ever known me not to?” She rolled her eyes at her own question. “Since he came to live with us, when it’s about him?”

“I know you don’t want him turning out like the others, but public school?”

“It worked for Kiza.”

“OUT OF IT!” The voice came instantly, almost as if she was waiting for that answer.

“Kiza is not Balem. No one is Balem,” he said, sighing heavily as Stinger folded his arms over his chest, shifting to lean back against the door jamb. “And she wasn’t raised around a man with wings. She never knew the truth until she was old enough to know to keep her mouth shut. When has Balem ever known how to do that?”

Sadly it was a fair enough question. Not even counting his previous life when speaking to hear the sound of his own voice was one of Balem’s greatest past times, he had proven in his life with them that much had not changed.

“He hasn’t told anyone yet. He goes to the park, and the mall, and he’s been seen with Caine and no one has seen his wings under the coat. We can cover with that. Laugh it off, and make sure Caine is seen at school. It’ll be like an imaginary friend.”

“An imaginary friend who happened to be a genetically engineered splice space rollerblading winged werepuppy.”

Instead of being frustrated, Jupiter smiled. “Exactly. No one is going to believe that, and they will right it off because it’s coming from a child. It’s what humans do, Stinger. They accept easily plausible answers whenever they can.”

“And if someone calls the government?”

“Then we explain that it’s exactly what you said. Genetically altered. He had them put on his back as animatronic body modifications. Like piercings and tattoos. He’s just more extreme.” She paused, considering that for a long, silent moment. Her eyes lit up, a wildness to her expression that came from excitement and danger. She may be reborn, but she was still the woman she had originally been, and there was a reason she had conquered universes.. 

“We could make that work for us, and if we could? He wouldn’t have to hid them. A scientifically made circus freak. A real life angel. Can you get me the information about his reattachment? There has to be paperwork on that, doesn’t there?”

Silence stretched between them, the former Aegis staring at his Queen as if she had lost her mind, and hating that her insanity might actually be infectious. 

“If you could make this work, and that is a huge if, Jupiter, you would have to get documents that document his surgeries, where the wings came from, how they work with his body. We can never show support that they make him fly. Others will still seek out his doctors to try and have the same thing done. What will you answer to that?”

At least this was almost as if he was agreeing with her and not butting heads with her once more. Maybe that was why royalty did not get close emotionally with their advisors, but Jupiter wouldn’t have it any other way. 

“Get ahold of Advocate Bob. He can make it work so that while they can certainly look for the information, finding details that we didn’t give them will become absolute madness,” she said, tones grim but determined. “As for the doctor, it’s redacted on all of the forms. Such a shame the government determined that what he had done, in another country no less, is not ethical and sanctions have been made. Pity that.”

Stinger fell silent again but this time his expression was more consideration than consternation over their argument. 

“You know, you really are her. You have better morals and ethics, but the way you think? It’s the same.”

There’s an insult in there, Jupiter knows it. Something about manipulation and deviousness. Except with all they’re dealing with, she knows it’s a compliment. Even if Stinger isn’t entirely sure yet. 

“Do you know what made that difference, Stinger?”

He rolled his eyes, seeing the corner he’d just painted himself into. “Let me guess. Public Earth school as a human?”

She smiled then, tapping the end of her nose. “You got it in one. I’m impressed. Now, get ahold of Advocate Bob and let’s get this started,” she said, excited for having found a solution. Certainly it was getting her way and she was glad for that, but only for Balem’s sake. Malik’s. 

Outside the window, Balem and Caine played catch, having been sent from the house when the fight started.

“Are they done fighting over me yet?” Balem didn’t look towards the window, brushing his hair back from eyes. 

Caine glanced towards the window, not flinching as Balem threw the ball instantly. Instead he caught it without looking.

“Splice senses are cheating,” he muttered under his breath.

“So is trying to hit me in the head,” Caine noted, still not looking at the boy, and not at all bothered about his behavior or snide comments. 

“Well? Are they done? Do I get to go school?”

“Hmmm, Jupiter is smiling and I think Stinger may have rolled his eyes into the back of his head so… I’m going to guess yes, to both?”

Balem whooped, jumping up and down in excitement. The baseball hit the outside of his glove.

“Hey! That’s cheating,” he hollered, shaking out his gloved hand.

“Go whine to Kiza about it,” he said, shrugging. Malik may not entirely be Balem, but when he got that attitude, Caine couldn’t help himself. Old habits die hard, and the reflexes of splice don’t die off just because the child wasn’t the same man. Even if the voice sounded the same.

He sighed though when Balem turned on heel, rushing into the house, screaming Kiza’s name. 

“If school doesn’t help him, I’m shipping him off to space,” Caine muttered, shaking his head as he followed Balem into the house. “He started it,” Caine called soon as he crossed the threshold, ignoring Stinger’s laughter coming from the other room.


End file.
